4 ms·

Is this on Windows? Or maybe you're on an older version of Git? I make branches with slashes in the name all the time, never had a problem with it.

by mhink 3y ago

hiatus 3y ago
The parent comment is specifically referring to creating a new branch from an existing branch with a slash in the name (ex: 'test-branch' and 'test-branch/new'). Trying it on my own machine (macos) yields an error. Even switching branches first and creating the new one yields an error.
- Smaug123 3y ago
  You should find that vice versa also errors. After all, in principle I guess it's possible to store data in a directory (it looks like EXT2 in particular would let you store data in between entries, https://tldp.org/LDP/tlk/fs/filesystem.html#ext2fs-dir-figure https://tldp.org/LDP/tlk/fs/filesystem.html#ext2fs-dir-figur... ), but the natural law is that a directory can't contain file contents.
- nevinera 3y ago
  First ran into this on persistent servers, where the deployed instance knew branch names github had long forgotten about.. Someone pushed a branch named "bugfix", and `git fetch` started erroring. You get even _more_ interesting problems if part of your team has case-insensitive file-systems!
shagie 3y ago
The version I have installed is a year old (2.39 is from last year) and this is a Mac rather than windows... % git init Initialized empty Git repository in /private/tmp/gittest/.git/ % git commit --allow-empty -m "initial" [main (root-commit) fa2cf4e] initial % git checkout -b test Switched to a new branch 'test' % git checkout -b test/1 fatal: cannot lock ref 'refs/heads/test/1': 'refs/heads/test' exists; cannot create 'refs/heads/test/1' % git --version git version 2.39.3 (Apple Git-145) % git checkout -b foo/bar Switched to a new branch 'foo/bar' % git checkout -b foo/qux Switched to a new branch 'foo/qux' % git checkout -b foo fatal: cannot lock ref 'refs/heads/foo': 'refs/heads/foo/bar' exists; cannot create 'refs/heads/foo' The issue is that 'test' exists before 'test/1' was (attempted to be) created. % pwd /tmp/gittest/.git/refs/heads % find . -print . ./test ./foo ./foo/qux ./foo/bar ./main % file * foo: directory main: ASCII text test: ASCII text In refs/heads, 'test' is a file and thus git is unable to create 'test/1'.

Is this on Windows? Or maybe you're on an older version of Git? I make branches with slashes in the name all the time, never had a problem with it.

by mhink 3y ago

Is this on Windows? Or maybe you're on an older version of Git? I make branches with slashes in the name all the time, never had a problem with it.

hiatus 3y ago

The parent comment is specifically referring to creating a new branch from an existing branch with a slash in the name (ex: 'test-branch' and 'test-branch/new'). Trying it on my own machine (macos) yields an error. Even switching branches first and creating the new one yields an error.

Smaug123 3y ago
You should find that vice versa also errors. After all, in principle I guess it's possible to store data in a directory (it looks like EXT2 in particular would let you store data in between entries, https://tldp.org/LDP/tlk/fs/filesystem.html#ext2fs-dir-figure https://tldp.org/LDP/tlk/fs/filesystem.html#ext2fs-dir-figur... ), but the natural law is that a directory can't contain file contents.
nevinera 3y ago
First ran into this on persistent servers, where the deployed instance knew branch names github had long forgotten about.. Someone pushed a branch named "bugfix", and `git fetch` started erroring. You get even _more_ interesting problems if part of your team has case-insensitive file-systems!

shagie 3y ago

The version I have installed is a year old (2.39 is from last year) and this is a Mac rather than windows... % git init Initialized empty Git repository in /private/tmp/gittest/.git/ % git commit --allow-empty -m "initial" [main (root-commit) fa2cf4e] initial % git checkout -b test Switched to a new branch 'test' % git checkout -b test/1 fatal: cannot lock ref 'refs/heads/test/1': 'refs/heads/test' exists; cannot create 'refs/heads/test/1' % git --version git version 2.39.3 (Apple Git-145) % git checkout -b foo/bar Switched to a new branch 'foo/bar' % git checkout -b foo/qux Switched to a new branch 'foo/qux' % git checkout -b foo fatal: cannot lock ref 'refs/heads/foo': 'refs/heads/foo/bar' exists; cannot create 'refs/heads/foo' The issue is that 'test' exists before 'test/1' was (attempted to be) created. % pwd /tmp/gittest/.git/refs/heads % find . -print . ./test ./foo ./foo/qux ./foo/bar ./main % file * foo: directory main: ASCII text test: ASCII text In refs/heads, 'test' is a file and thus git is unable to create 'test/1'.